


workshop

by FunAndWhimsy



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Knotting, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:54:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23984881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunAndWhimsy/pseuds/FunAndWhimsy
Summary: Sylvain finally convinced Bernadetta to let him read her work and even offer critique, but when he shows up for their first meeting she's clearly suffering. That's okay; Sylvain has more than a few ways of dealing with an alpha in rut.
Relationships: Sylvain Jose Gautier/Bernadetta von Varley
Comments: 18
Kudos: 108
Collections: Omega Sylvain Week





	workshop

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Omega Sylvain Week (Day 2: Scent)!
> 
> For purposes of this fic, alphas have penises & omegas have vaginas.

"Whoa," Sylvain says without thinking when Bernadetta opens the door. "You look awful. Do you need Manuela?"

Sylvain's usually pretty careful with Bernie, skittish as she is, but he reaches up to press the back of his hand against her forehead without checking with her and instead of flinching away she leans into it a little, like she can't stand up without leaning on him, or like she's starving for touch. She definitely has a fever, her skin hot to the touch, red all the way down into the neckline of her nightgown and sticky with sweat.

"I don't - it's not that. I'm just - I need to sleep it off."

Sylvain's about to argue - he grew up with three of the most obnoxiously stubborn people in the wide world, he knows the difference between a sickness that can be powered through and one that can't - when the smell hits him, and it must show on his face because Bernadetta winces a little and pulls away from his touch.

"Okay, thanks for coming by, I'll see you next - "

"Wait," Sylvain says, and sticks his foot in the doorway in time to stop her from shutting it entirely. Another thing he normally wouldn't do with Bernadetta, whose boundaries are so immovable and so sacred, but he's not good with suffering. Whether it's his trauma, his closest friends' collective inability to take care of themselves, his omega nature, whatever, seeing someone miserable overrides his better judgement pretty much the same way everyone thinks a short skirt does. "It's okay, I can help."

Bernie glances around like a panicked animal looking for an escape route, and Sylvain's just about to apologize and leave when she steps away from the door and gestures for him to come in, biting her lip the whole time. Her room _stinks_ , not the way he might have expected from someone who smuggles food from the dining hall and eats most of her meals in here but like - goddess, Sylvain's a little dizzy with it. Alpha, and not just alpha but alpha in rut, and not just alpha in rut but miserable alpha in rut, and breathing through his mouth doesn't really help but Sylvain's regular desire to make everyone okay is enough without his innate need to make sure the unhappy alpha isn't unhappy with him in particular and isn't going to act on their unhappiness and he has to do _something_.

"I, um, I'm - you can, it's okay, you don't have to worry, I'm fine! Bernie can take care of herself."

"Can she?" Sylvain asks, and crosses the room to get to the window, carefully stepping over half-finished projects and discarded clothes. He pulls up the blinds and opens the window and feels better instantly as fresh air hits his lungs and flushes out all Bernie's misery smell. "That's better. Is this your first?"

"Oh," she says, "no, I just - no?"

"Because most alphas I know get super weird if they're alone in rut," Sylvain says, turning away from the window now that he can think a little more clearly. "Just stewing in your own stale air is making that worse, Bernie. You've totally overpowered whatever you've got in here to help."

"What do you mean, help?"

"I've got a pretty sensitive nose and I can't pick up any omega smell at all," Sylvain says. "Not even the gross artificial stuff the alphas who can't be trusted around omegas use."

"Oh, I don't do anything like that, I've always just - I mean, who wants to marry an alpha who can't even - er, I mean, I just, um, I've never needed, um, help."

Sylvain takes a deep breath - and goddess, he can almost taste how anxious she is in the air, even with the window open - because it won't help anyone if he gets angry, and Bernadetta clearly needs him so he can't upset her and get kicked out of here before he does that. Or after he does that, ideally, but one thing at a time. But she's pale except for the pink high on her cheeks that had him checking her for a fever as soon as he saw her, unsteady on her feet, eyes a little glassy, and he has a few words for whoever it is who looked at her like that and convinced her she didn't need to feel better. 

"That's pretty impressive," he says, and if he fails at sounding as casual as he wants to at least he's not talking to one of the handful of people who always see right through him. "You can take help just because it's nice, though, even if it's not _necessary_. No one here's going to give you shit about it."

Bernadetta glances around like she's going to catch him in a lie, like whoever it is who's hurt her like this has eyes on the room and is going to burst in any second and catch her in the act.

"That's okay," she says. "I don't - it wouldn't be - I'm fine."

"Sure," Sylvain says. "I'm sorry, I'll get out of your hair. Can you do me one favor, though?"

Bernadetta nods, and Sylvain turns his most charming, innocent, 'please take care of me I'm just a sweet, helpless omega' smile on because, well, he has to play to his strengths.

"Can I have a hug? It's an omega thing, you know, being around an alpha who seems unhappy is just a little unsettling. It'll calm me down?"

"Oh," Bernie says, "I didn't mean to - I didn't - um, I guess so, if - yeah."

Sylvain opens his arms and takes a couple steps forward and Bernadetta sort of falls into his chest more than she hugs him back but that's okay. Sylvain wraps his arms around her, a little gently at first in case she changes her mind but when she doesn't move he tightens up, even gives her a little squeeze. Sylvain gives excellent hugs, trained on weepy Felix and standoffish Ingrid and reluctant Dimitri, and it's kind of nice to find a problem where this particular talent is the solution. Bernadetta wriggles in his arms a little like she's trying to get closer, takes a few deep, deep breaths, and for a second Sylvain thinks she's going to cry but whatever it is passes and she just looks up at him with something like awe in her pretty grey eyes.

"That better?" Sylvain asks, and thank the goddess she actually laughs a little.

" _So_ much better, I didn't - is it - what did you _do_?"

"It's a bonding instinct, Bernie," he says. "It's supposed to hurt to be alone, so you go out and find a mate and a pack or whatever."

The scent in the air is changing so quickly and dramatically it's like someone lit a candle or something, all that pain and fear drifting out the window to be replaced with comfort and joy and all the associated feelings of Bernadetta getting what she needs for maybe, probably, the first time in her life. Sylvain rubs her back a little and alphas don't really purr but for a second he thinks she might just because she looks so completely blissed out.

"I can leave my jacket or something here when I head out, if you want. It'll help."

Bernadetta frowns a little and glances around the room again, eyes darting from corner to corner like a deer that knows it's dinner but has to check one more time for an escape route.

"Hey, it's okay. I know how to keep a secret, if you don't want anyone knowing you need help."

"Oh," Bernie says. "I don't - you - yes, thank you, but I wasn't - do you need to leave?"

Oh. Sylvain grins down at her, a little awkward for his neck as short and close as she is. "Not for a while. You're the only thing on my calendar today."

Bernadetta smiles, soft and so pleased it almost hurts to look at, and then some level of self-awareness must kick in because she goes pink and hides her face in Sylvain's chest again. He laughs and lets her, holds her for a few more minutes and just kind of enjoys it, how nicely she fits in his arms, how good she smells, how novel it is to be this kind of wanted for a change. But eventually Bernie sags a little heavier against him, like maybe after however many days of just suffering through it now that she feels better she might fall asleep on her feet, and Sylvain figures they should probably move this cuddle somewhere softer.

Most of Bernadetta's room is covered in bits and pieces of projects in progress, even - especially - all the chairs, so there's really only the bed but if she's this exhausted that's the best choice anyway. When Sylvain tries to step away her arms tighten around him, which is all kinds of cute, and he manages not to laugh as he reaches around to loosen her grip.

"I'm not going far," he says, and this time when he steps back she lets him. Sylvain tugs the blanket up over the unmade bed and shifts around a few of her many, many clearly handmade blankets and cushions into a sloppy nest. Alphas in general don't nest, but Bernie wouldn't have this much stuff on her bed if she didn't like it at least a little bit, and anyway it makes Sylvain feel a little better to set it up like that. A little bit less like getting into a girl's bed, a little bit more like just being helpful Sylvain. 

Sylvain kicks off his boots, shrugs out of his jacket and climbs into the little nest, taking a minute or two to get really comfortable just in case his hunch is right and she falls asleep on him. Then he opens his arms wide to make space for her, and waits for her to do whatever it is she needs to do in her brain to convince herself this is just as okay as getting an upright hug was. She walks over a little slowly, and she's got that look on her face like she expects someone to jump out any minute and catch her in the act, but she does eventually make it to the bed and into Sylvain's arms. Sylvain pulls her into him a little, nice and tight like she clearly liked when he was holding her before, but this time she doesn't relax into it right away. 

"You, uh, you smell - you smell really good, is that okay to say? Is that weird? Oh, goddess, if Bernie's being weird you can - are you sure you don't need to go?"

"Complimenting me is always okay," Sylvain says, and winks at her; he only barely manages not to call her 'baby' or 'sweetheart', some reflex from using that tone of voice and being in someone else's bed.

"I - okay," Bernadetta says, and finally starts to relax against him, gets less like cuddling a training dummy by the second. 

She does fall asleep, and Sylvain doesn't blame her, although he maybe should have taken a moment to grab a book or something before committing to being her pillow. He wouldn't be able to concentrate, anyway, a little bit buzzed on happy-alpha-in-rut pheromones so his head's just the tiniest bit fuzzy, his muscles just a little bit loose. Sylvain doesn't spend a lot of time around alphas, at least not ones that aren't basically family and definitely not in rut. It gets complicated fast, and Sylvain isn't into the protective collars some omegas wear but he's also not exactly into the idea of some crest-hungry alpha giving him a claiming bite and pretending they just couldn't control themselves. Rut smell usually means he's somewhere it'd be smarter not to be, or something's gone wrong, not that he's done something good and made someone happy.

Made _Bernie_ happy, his brain keeps reminding him, and it's probably just because he's marinating in her pheromones or his omega instincts honing in on the nearest alpha and deciding to claim her, but that feels...important. She's a hard nut to crack, and difficult people are almost always Sylvain's favorites. The difficult ones who seem to have a soft spot for him, anyway, he can't get _everyone_ from scream-and-run-away to smile-and-invite-him-over. He liked winning her over, he likes that he's won her over, he likes being here with her even if they're not working on her story, even if they're just cuddling. 

Sylvain sighs, tips his head back and looks at the ceiling. Winning her over because he can't stand when people don't like him unless he's given them a reason is one thing, working on her writing is one thing, but he should've just given her his jacket and left, big sad eyes or no big sad eyes. Sylvain has a ton of safe ways to deal with all his bonding urges and it's all shit like casual sex and play wrestling and hanging out outside the training grounds so he can go in and annoy Felix into leaving before he overtrains and hurts himself and giving Ingrid a mess to clean up. Cuddling isn't on the list, for its own very long list of very good reasons. And high on that list is just how _nice_ this feels, Bernie purring in his arms, warm and soft and the perfect weight against his side, breath tickling over his scent gland, her own scent soft and calm and relaxed and making him a little sleepy. Casual sex and play wrestling don't work this well and when he doesn't let himself have this he doesn't have to remember that.

"I had no idea it could feel this good," she says, quiet and slow like she's not really awake yet.

"I get that a lot," Sylvain says, because he's a fucking idiot, and then winces, but Bernadetta just laughs like she doesn't mind that he's a horny doofus.

Bernadetta laughs, breath tickling his neck.

"It's always just hurt," she says, and Sylvain just closes his eyes and lets the brief flash of anger light him up and fade out without worrying about it. Before coming to the monastery he figured he'd seen just about all the ways biology and all its attendant expectations could fuck a person over, but it turns out there's a truly endless variety and he'd barely scratched the surface. And most of the people he knows deal with it by getting angry or resigning themselves to their fate, but Bernie still _tries_ , as far as Sylvain can tell she still thinks the game is one she can win if she's just good enough. 

Either because she can tell Sylvain's getting upset or because she hasn't noticed, Bernadetta presses a gentle kiss to his neck, and then another, sighs a little and kisses him again. And Sylvain...hm. He should stop her, because it's the sort of thing she'll probably be embarrassed about later, but if she's just doing it because she's a little rut-drunk and touch-hungry calling attention to it might make her freeze up and undo all this nice relaxation. He's worked so hard to get her to just be comfortable being his friend, though, and if she's upset enough afterwards it could undo all _that_ instead. Also it just feels kind of nice, her lips are a little dry and her kisses are so tentative, and Sylvain isn't immune to that or to the smell of sleepy, content alpha in rut getting thicker in the air.

Bernadetta kisses Sylvain right on his scent gland and that makes him shiver, and she makes a happy, curious little hum and scrapes her teeth, and that - okay.

"Bernie," he says; she ignores him and scrapes her teeth again, a little more firmly this time, her tongue darting out between her teeth so she can taste him. "Bernie."

"I want to bite you," she says, so petulant Sylvain almost laughs at her. Almost. "I don't - I won't! But wow, I want to bite you so much."

"I get that a lot, too," Sylvain says, and this time she just grumbles but goes back to kissing his neck, soft little kisses that just kind of make Sylvain's skin feel a little too hot, a little too tight. Bernadetta shifts her hips a little, snuggles closer, and oh, there she is, hard against his thigh. Sylvain's best judgement says he should probably get up and go now, but his pretty okay judgement says seeing where this goes wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. And then there's his _body's_ judgement, which is entirely separate and mostly says that she smells good and feels good and if there's an alpha here who needs him he should probably be nice and slick and ready for her. "Bernie."

"You smell good," she says, and rocks her hips a little, drags her cock along Sylvain's thigh. He tenses up to give her a little more pressure, almost on instinct, and she lets out this devastating sweet little moan that throbs right between Sylvain's legs. It - it'd be pretty cruel to get her partway to knowing her rut can feel good and not help her the rest of the way, right? 

Sylvain tightens the arm he has around her shoulder to bring her in as close as he can and reaches down with the other to rest his hand on her hip, keep her where she is. He gives her a minute, waits to see if she stops, apologizes, realizes what she's doing and regrets it, but she just keeps on riding his thigh and kissing his neck and sighing. Shit. Sylvain reaches lower, to the hem of her skirt, and pushes it up her leg, stops just at the top of her thighs to tease - well, himself, probably more than her.

"I can help you with that," Sylvain says, his voice a little rougher than normal. "Take this off?"

Bernadetta looks up at him, and for a second he thinks he might have broken the spell but she just bites her lip and scoots away from him enough to pull her nightgown over her head, revealing maybe the cutest little tits he's ever seen in his life. She's blushing all the way down her chest, a pretty rosy pink, and her puffy nipples harden against the slight chill of the breeze from the open window. There's - Sylvain usually has a lot to say, when a pretty girl is nice enough to take her clothes off for him, but nothing feels quite right for this, for Bernie, so he just leans up and kisses her.

It's her first kiss, Sylvain would have known that even if she didn't freeze up at the touch of his lips to hers, but he doesn't exactly mind. Sylvain tries to avoid being anyone's first time but it's different with - well, with someone he likes enough he's not going to get frustrated when she wants more of his time, if she has feelings and stuff she needs him to help her work through. And different with Bernadetta, specifically, because there's a warmth settling heavy and solid in his chest that has nothing to do with the heat licking through his veins when she parts her lips and lets him in.

Bernadetta reacts to every little thing Sylvain does with a different noise, all these hot little high gasps that he could stand to hear even more of. She gasps when he teases against her tongue with his, and when he cups one of her tits with one big palm that almost covers the whole thing, and when he slides the other hand down to rest warm and solid on her hip, and he kind of wants to touch her everywhere and find out how many different noises she can make for him but he can also smell just how desperate she's getting. She raises her hand to touch her lips when he pulls away, and that's so fucking sweet it's all Sylvain can do to focus on coaxing her to lie on her back so he can finally turn his attention where she needs it most.

Girl alphas always have the cutest cocks, and Bernie's no exception. Slim, pink cock with a slim little knot already swelling up at the base, just barely big enough to plug Sylvain up. Small enough she could probably fuck him right through knotting if he were in heat or she stretched him enough, and that's - that's too much thinking about that right now.

"Goddess, look at you," Sylvain says, and wraps his hand around her. "Sweet little thing."

Bernadetta laughs, but it's awkward and shivery and he can see how hard she's working to keep still and not start fucking his fist. 

"Are you talking to me, or - "

"Both," Sylvain says, and kisses her again, because he _likes_ kissing her, likes the way she picks up every new thing he shows her and turns it around on him. She's a quick learner and an eager student and she's having the worst time keeping her biting impulses in check and he likes that, too. Sylvain squeezes her cock until she gasps, then loosens his grip and starts stroking her nice and steady, slick with her precome.

"I - oh," she gasps, as her resolve breaks and she starts thrusting into his hand, urging him on faster and faster. Sylvain's torn between kissing her more and just watching, getting to see her gorgeous body move for him, the needy pink head of her cock slicker every time it peeks out from his fist, the way her thighs tense as her thrusts start to get erratic already. "I - no, I want - "

"You're in rut, baby," Sylvain says, though he does slow down a little in case she really wants him to stop. "You'll be able to get it up again for me. Let me make you come."

"I don't - yeah," she says, and he speeds up again until his hand is a blur and she's turning her head into his shoulder, gasping. "Sylvain, Sylv - yeah, yes, I - oh!"

Bernadetta's whole body jerks and bucks when she comes, and she - fuck, there's so _much_ of it, up almost to her chin and all over her cute little tits and her stomach and Sylvain's hand, and even though he keeps his hand away from her knot so she doesn't get too satisfied she just keeps going like he's milking her, crying out for him so sweetly he wishes he could throw open the windows and let everyone here.

She goes limp like a puppet whose strings have been cut when she's finished, and Sylvain doesn't blame her. She's - goddess, she's gorgeous, chest red and heaving, cock still hard and ready to go, eyes bright and lips all kiss-swollen. Sylvain lifts his hand to his mouth to taste her - amazing, there's fucking nothing like alpha come - and she squeaks and turns to hide her head in the pillow, still so _Bernie_. Looking at her like this, all open and vulnerable for him and still hiding her face, makes Sylvain's chest swell up with something warm and heavy and and solid that's way, way too much to deal with so instead of looking at her he just yanks his shirt over his head.

"That looked like it felt good," Sylvain says, and uses his shirt to clean her up a little just to give himself something to do that isn't go crazy with lust or _feelings_ waiting for her to come back down.

"I haven't - " Bernadetta says. "I don't really...wow."

"There's more where that came from," Sylvain says, which is pretty impressive considering how dry his throat is at the idea she doesn't touch herself, that she just let _Sylvain_ do something she doesn't even trust herself to do, which is - shit. "If you're still up for it."

" _Please_ ," Bernadetta says, and then hides her face with her hands like maybe she didn't mean to sound so eager. Sylvain lets her hide, because this is all probably pretty intense for her, and just shifts so he can get up to straddle her lap. It's not until he moves, until the fabric of his underclothes brushes against him and makes him shiver, he realizes just how turned on he is, how drenches, and he definitely doesn't regret getting Bernadetta off because that was the hottest thing he's ever seen but maybe he didn't need to be worried about how quickly she looked like she was going to go off. Sylvain undoes his pants and kicks them off with his underclothes and then he just...waits, his soaking cunt so close to her cock he can feel the heat of her, waits for her to catch her breath and be ready.

Bernadetta peeks out from between her fingers first, which is cuter than it has any right to be, and then she pulls her hands away from her face to rest them gingerly on his thighs, her eyes running up and down Sylvain's body the way he fucking loves to see.

"Wow," she says again, and doesn't even roll her eyes when Sylvain smirks, like she said that because she _wants_ him to feel good about how good she thinks he looks. Bernie runs her hands down his thighs and then back up, and in, stopping just shy of where he aches for her touch. "You'll - I want to know how to make you feel that good."

"Next time," Sylvain says, which is wild because he usually doesn't promise 'next time' because no one usually expects - wants? - that from him. "This is about you and that cute little knot of yours."

Sylvain is kind of pleased to realize he's learning Bernadetta's language, what all her different squeaks and yelps and little screams and especially, right now, her blushes mean, how different the pink of embarrassment high in her cheeks is from the deeper flush of _wanting_ , and right now she definitely, definitely wants. 

"That's - not - I mean, not _just_ me," she says.

"Trust me," Sylvain says. "Nothing's gonna make me feel better than this."

He sinks down on her cock before she can argue and fuck, oh, that's nice. He can be a little bit of a size queen sometimes but Bernadetta fits inside him _perfectly_ , with just the littlest bit of stretch like they're made to go together. She clutches his hips and throws her head back with a sweet gasp as he clenches up around her just to feel it and fuck, she's gorgeous. Sylvain wants to make her come so hard she forgets everyone who's ever been terrible to her and maybe also her own name and everything else but how good he makes her feel. 

"That's it," Sylvain says, and leans forward so he can plant his hands on the bed for leverage, cage her in a little. The change in angle is fucking _perfect_ , too, so her cock nestles nice and snug up against all the right places inside him, so his clit brushes against her plump knot. Sylvain is so keyed up from...everything, watching her come, tasting her, the thicker and thicker stink of sex and arousal and rut in the air, just that little brush has his brain shorting out and he grinds his hips just to revel in it. Bernadetta squeaks and digs her blunt nails into his hips, just the littlest hint of pain to heighten the sensation, and yeah, Sylvain's had enough teasing.

He starts slow, because as cute as she is when she's overwhelmed he doesn't want it to get painful or end too quickly. Bernie makes a whole new chorus of noises for him like this, deeper and louder and more strung out, and he can tell her knot's growing because it hits his clit just a little differently every time he takes her back in. It's fucking perfect, honestly, the drag of her cock inside him resonating through him kind of the same way healing magic does but way, way better, her gorgeous little body all spread out beneath him, the clutch of her hands and the slick, messy sound of their bodies meeting. Nothing feels as good as getting fucked does and soon enough keeping it slow is too much effort so Sylvain rocks his hips faster, and faster, fucks himself on her perfect alpha cock exactly the way he loves best.

"Bern - fuck - Bernadetta," he groans, and that seems to really do something for her because she groans and - yes, yeah - starts thrusting her hips to meet him. Her rhythm's a little clumsy and she's not quite as strong as he needs but it's good anyway, just what he needs, and Sylvain leans back so he can really get moving. He's so focused on the heat building and building, the urgency coiling up tight, it takes him by surprise when her fingers brush between his legs, because of course she'd try to take care of him. Sweet little thing.

Sylvain guides her hand to his clit, almost as long and thick as her thumb as turned on as he is right now, and almost jumps out of his skin when she starts stroking him, a little too firmly but it's good, it's all good, everything's great. He throws his head back and stops thinking, stops caring, lets his hips take over until, as sudden and intense as breaking through thin ice, he comes, groaning and cursing and still riding her as hard as he can.

"I - oh, can I - Sylvain, you - can I, please, I - "

Sylvain has just enough presence of mind to realize what she's asking, but not quite enough to speak or even nod so he just bears down and takes her knot inside, losing his breath a little at the stretch while he's still shaking through the aftershocks. Bernadetta _wails_ , hips bucking as wildly as they can with Sylvain's basically pinning her down while she comes again. It's almost enough to tip Sylvain over into another orgasm, the fullness of her knot and the heat of her spilling inside him, the way her face twists up in bliss and her whole body shakes for him, and not for the first time he kind of wishes he were any good at any kind of art so he could capture this.

He'll have to settle for remembering it, committing every inch of her to memory, and he helps himself along by petting her stomach, her legs, any part of her he can reach just to get the sense memory. 

"Hey," Sylvain says, when she finally opens her eyes, shivering just a little bit. "You okay?"

"I'm - am I _okay_?" she says, and laughs, high and giddy and breathless. "I - Bernie's good."

"Good," Sylvain says, and settles onto his knees, probably the most comfortable he's going to get since he didn't actually think about it _before_ they locked together. Whoops.

"I, um, I hadn't - I didn't - thank you."

"Oh, it was my pleasure," Sylvain says, and grins at her.

"This wasn't what I expected," Bernadetta says. "When I let you come in, I mean, I wasn't - I don't want you to think - "

"I get it," he says. "I trust you."

"Oh! Um, I trust you, too," she says. "Oh!" 

Bernadetta wriggles around in a way that's honestly kind of uncomfortable, now that Sylvain's coming down and is just kind of full and sensitive and sticky, and reaches for a stack of papers on the nightstand. Sylvain takes it from her with a raised eyebrow, and laughs when he sees it's the new couple chapters she was planning on showing him today, before - everything.

"Now?" he asks, and she shrugs.

"You're not going anywhere, are you?"

"Fair enough," Sylvain says, and there, locked together with Bernadetta who looks like she's probably about to fall asleep again, he begins to read.


End file.
